A History of the Philippines Part 8

Sir Francis Drake's Noted Voyage.--The year 1577 is notable for the appearance in the East of the great English sea-captain, freebooter, and naval hero, Francis Drake. England and Spain, at this moment, while not actually at war, were rapidly approaching the conflict which made them for centuries traditional enemies. Spain was the champion of Roman ecclesiasticism. Her king, Philip the Second, was not only a cruel bigot, but a politician of sweeping ambition. His schemes included the conquest of France and England, the extermination of Protestantism, and the subjection of Europe to his own and the Roman authority.

The English people scented the danger from afar, and while the two courts nominally maintained peace, the daring seamen of British Devon were quietly putting to sea in their swift and terrible vessels, for the crippling of the Spanish power. The history of naval warfare records no more reckless adventures than those of the English mariners during this period. Audacity could not rise higher.

Drake's is the most famous and romantic figure of them all. In the year 1577, he sailed from England with the avowed purpose of sweeping the Spanish Main. He pa.s.sed the Straits of Magellan, and came up the western coast of South America, despoiling the Spanish shipping from Valparaiso to Panama. Thence he came on across the Pacific, touched the coast of Mindanao, and turned south to the Moluccas.

The Portuguese had nominally annexed the Moluccas in 1522, but at the time of Drake's visit they had been driven from Ternate, though still holding Tidor. Drake entered into friendly relations with the sultan of Ternate, and secured a cargo of cloves. From here he sailed boldly homeward, daring the Portuguese fleets, as he had defied the Spanish, and by way of Good Hope returned to England, his fleet the first after Magellan's to circ.u.mnavigate the globe.

A Spanish Expedition to Borneo.--The appearance of Drake in the Moluccas roused La-Sande to ambitious action. The attraction of the southern archipelagoes was overpowering, and at this moment the opportunity seemed to open to the governor to force southward his power. One of the Malay kings of Borneo, Sirela, arrived in Manila, pet.i.tioning aid against his brother, and promising to acknowledge the sovereignty of the king of Spain over the island of Borneo. La-Sande went in person to restore this chieftain to power. He had a fleet of galleys and frigates, and, according to Padre Gaspar de San Augustin, more than fifteen hundred Filipino bowmen from Pangasinan, Cagayan, and the Bisayas accompanied the expedition. He landed on the coast of Borneo, destroyed the fleet of praos and the city of the usurper, and endeavored to secure Sirela in his princ.i.p.ality. Sickness among his fleet and the lack of provisions forced him to return to Manila.

The First Attack upon the Moros of Jolo.--On his return he sent an officer against the island of Jolo. This officer forced the Joloanos to recognize his power, and from there he pa.s.sed to the island of Mindanao, where he further enforced obedience upon the natives. This was the beginning of the Spanish expeditions against the Moros, which had the effect of arousing in these Mohammedan pirates such terrible retaliatory vengeance. Under La-Sande the conquest of the Camarines was completed by Captain Juan Chaves and the city of Nueva Caceres founded.

The Appointment of Governor Ronquillo.--It was the uniform policy of the Spanish government to limit the term of office of the governor to a short period of years. This was one of the futile provisions by which Spain attempted to control both the ambition and the avarice of her colonial captains. But Don Gonzalo Ronquillo had granted to him the governorship of the Philippines for life, on the condition of his raising and equipping a force of six hundred in Spain, largely at his own expense, for the better protection and pacification of the archipelago. This Ronquillo did, bringing his expedition by way of Panama. He arrived in April, 1580, and although he died at the end of three years, his rule came at an important time.

The Spanish and the Portuguese Colonies Combined.--In 1580, Philip II, conquered and annexed to Spain the kingdom of Portugal, and with Portugal came necessarily to the Spanish crown those rich eastern colonies which the valor of Da Gama and Albuquerque had won. Portugal rewon her independence in 1640, but for years Manila was the capital of a colonial empire, extending from Goa in India to Formosa.

Events of Ronquillo's Rule.--Ronquillo, under orders from the crown, entered into correspondence with the captain of the Portuguese fortress on the island of Tidor, and the captain of Tidor pet.i.tioned Ronquillo for a.s.sistance in reconquering the tempting island of Ternate. Ronquillo sent south a considerable expedition, but after arriving in the Moluccas the disease of beri-beri in the Spanish camp defeated the undertaking. Ronquillo also sent a small armada to the coasts of Borneo and Malacca, where a limited amount of pepper was obtained.

The few years of Ronquillo's reign were in other ways important. A colony of Spaniards was established at Oton, on the island of Panay, which was given the name of Arevalo (Iloilo). And under Ronquillo was pacified for the first time the great valley of the Cagayan. At the mouth of the river a j.a.panese adventurer, Tayfusa, or Tayzufu, had established himself and was attempting the subjugation of this important part of northern Luzon. Ronquillo sent against him Captain Carreon, who expelled the intruder and established on the present site of Lao-lo the city of Nueva Segovia. Two friars accompanied this expedition and the occupation of this valley by the Spaniards was made permanent.

The First Conflicts between the Church and the State.--In March, 1581, there arrived the first Bishop of Manila, Domingo de Salazar. Almost immediately began those conflicts between the spiritual and civil authorities, and between bishop and the regular orders, which have filled to such an extent the history of the islands. The bishop was one of those authoritative, ambitious, and arrogant characters, so typical in the history of the Church. It was largely due to his protests against the autocratic power of the governor that the king was induced to appoint the first Audiencia. The character and power of these courts have already been explained. The president and judges arrived the year following the death of Ronquillo, and the president, Dr. Santiago de Vera, became acting governor during the succeeding five years.

In 1587, the first Dominicans, fifteen in number, arrived, and founded their celebrated mission, La Provincia del Santisimo Rosario.

Increasing Strength of the Malays.--De Vera continued the policy of his predecessors and another fruitless attack was made on Ternate in 1585. The power of the Malay people was increasing, while that of the Europeans was decreasing. The sultans had expelled their foreign masters, and neither Spaniard nor Portuguese were able to effect the conquest of the Moluccas. There were uprisings of the natives in Manila and in Cagayan and Ilocos.

The Decree of 1589.--Affairs in the Islands did not yet, however, suit Bishop Salazar, and as the representative of both governor and bishop, the Jesuit, Alonso Sanchez, was dispatched in 1586 to lay the needs of the colony before the king. Philip was apparently impressed with the necessity of putting the government of the Islands upon a better administrative basis. To this end he published the important decree of 1589.

The governor now became a paid officer of the crown, at a salary of ten thousand ducats. For the proper protection of the colony and the conquest of the Moluccas, a regular force of four hundred soldiers accompanied the governor. His powers were extended to those of an actual viceregent of the king, and the Audiencia was abolished. The man selected to occupy this important post was Don Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, who arrived with the new const.i.tution in May, 1590. So great was the chagrin of the bishop at the abolition of the Audiencia and the increase of the governor's power, that he himself set out for Spain to lay his wishes before the court.

The Missionary Efforts of the Friars.--Twenty-four Franciscans came with Dasmarinas and the presence of the three orders necessitated the part.i.tion of the Islands among them. The keenest rivalry and jealousy existed among them over the prosecution of missions in still more foreign lands. To the missionaries of this age it seemed a possible thing to convert the great and conservative nations of China and j.a.pan to the Western religion.

In the month of Dasmarinas' arrival, a company of Dominicans attempted to found a mission in China, and, an emba.s.sy coming from j.a.pan to demand va.s.salage from the Philippines, four of the newly arrived Franciscans accompanied the j.a.panese on their return.

A year later, in 1592, another emba.s.sy from the king of Cambodia arrived, bringing gifts that included two elephants, and pet.i.tioning for succor against the king of Siam. This was the beginning of an alliance between Cambodia and the Philippines which lasted for many years, and which occasioned frequent military aid and many efforts to convert that country.

Death of Dasmarinas.--But the center of Dasmarinas' ambitions was the effective conquest of the East Indies and the extension of Spanish power and his own rule through the Moluccas. With this end in view, for three years he made preparations. For months the sh.o.r.es were lined with the yards of the shipbuilders, and the great forests of Bulacan fell before the axes of the Indians. More than two hundred vessels, "galeras," "galeotas," and "virrayes," were built, and a.s.sembled at Cavite.

In the fall of 1593, the expedition, consisting of over nine hundred Spaniards, Filipino bowmen and rowers, was ready. Many of the Filipinos, procured to row these boats, were said to have been slaves, purchased through the Indian chiefs by the Spanish encomenderos. The governor sent forward this great fleet under the command of his son, Don Luis, and in the month of October he himself set sail in a galley with Chinese rowers. But on the night of the second day, while off the island of Maricaban, the Chinese oarsmen rose against the Spaniards, of whom there were about forty on the ship, and killed almost the entire number, including the governor. They then escaped in the boat to the Ilocos coast and thence to China.

The murder of this active and ill.u.s.trious general was a determining blow to the ambitious projects for the conquest of the East Indies. Among other papers which Dasmarinas brought from Spain was a royal cedula giving him power to nominate his successor, who proved to be his son, Don Luis, who after some difficulty succeeded temporarily to his father's position.

Arrival of the Jesuits.--In June, 1595, there arrived Don Antonio de Morga, who had been appointed a.s.sessor and lieutenant-governor of the Islands, to succeed Don Luis. With Morga came the first Jesuit missionaries. He was also the bearer of an order granting to the Jesuits the exclusive privilege of conducting missions in China and j.a.pan. The other orders were forbidden to pa.s.s outside the Islands.

An attempt to Colonize Mindanao.--In the year 1596, the Captain Rodriguez de Figueroa received the t.i.tle of governor of Mindanao, with exclusive right to colonize the island for "the s.p.a.ce of two lives." He left Iloilo in April with 214 Spaniards, two Jesuit priests, and many natives. They landed in the Rio Grande of Mindanao, where the defiant dato, Silonga, fortified himself and resisted them. Almost immediately Figueroa rashly ventured on sh.o.r.e and was killed by Moros. Reinforcements were sent under Don Juan Ronquillo, who, after nearly bringing the datos to submission, abandoned all he had gained. The Spaniards burned their forts on the Rio Grande and retired to Caldera, near Zamboanga, where they built a presidio.

Death of Franciscans in j.a.pan.--The new governor, Don Francisco Tello de Guzman, arrived on June 1, 1596. He had previously been treasurer of the Casa de Contratacion in Seville. Soon after his arrival an important and serious tragedy occurred in j.a.pan. The ship for Acapulco went ash.o.r.e on the j.a.panese coast and its rich cargo was seized by the feudal prince where the vessel sought a.s.sistance. The Franciscans had already missions in these islands, and a quarrel existed between them and the Portuguese Jesuits over this missionary field. The latter succeeded in prejudicing the j.a.panese court against the Franciscans, and when they injudiciously pressed for the return of the property of the wrecked galleon, "San Felipe," the emperor, greedy for the rich plunder, and exasperated by their preaching, met their pet.i.tions with the sentence of death. They were horribly crucified at the port of Nagasaki, February 5, 1597. This emperor was the proud and cruel ruler, Taycosama. He was planning the conquest of the Philippines themselves, when death ended his plans.

The First Archbishop in the Philippines.--Meanwhile the efforts of Salazar at the Spanish court had effected further important changes for the Islands. The reestablishment of the Royal Audiencia was ordered, and his own position was elevated to that of archbishop, with the three episcopal sees of Ilocos, Cebu, and the Camarines. He did not live to a.s.sume this office, and the first archbishop of the Philippines was Ignacio Santibanez, who also died three months after his arrival, on May 28, 1598.

Reestablishment of the Audiencia.--The Audiencia was reestablished with great pomp and ceremony. The royal seal was borne on a magnificently caparisoned horse to the cathedral, where a Te Deum was chanted, and then to the Casas Reales, where was inaugurated the famous court that continued without interruption down to the end of Spanish rule. Dr. Morga was one of the first oidores, and the earliest judicial record which can now be found in the archives of this court is a sentence bearing his signature.

The Rise of Moro Piracy.--The last years of De Guzman's governorship were filled with troubles ominous for the future of the Islands. The presidio of Caldera was destroyed by the Moros. Following this victory, in the year 1599, the Moros of Jolo and Maguindanao equipped a piratical fleet of fifty caracoas, and swept the coasts of the Bisayas. Cebu, Negros, and Panay were ravaged, their towns burned, and their inhabitants carried off as slaves.

The following year saw the return of a larger and still more dreadful expedition. The people of Panay abandoned their towns and fled into the mountains, under the belief that these terrible attacks had been inspired by the Spaniards. To check these pirates, Juan Gallinato, with a force of two hundred Spaniards, was sent against Jolo, but, like so many expeditions that followed his, he accomplished nothing. The inability of the Spaniards was now revealed and the era of Moro piracy had begun. "From this time until the present day"

(about the year 1800), wrote Zuniga, "these Moros have not ceased to infest our colonies; innumerable are the Indians they have captured, the towns they have looted, the rancherias they have destroyed, the vessels they have taken. It seems as if G.o.d has preserved them for vengeance on the Spaniards that they have not been able to subject them in two hundred years, in spite of the expeditions sent against them, the armaments sent almost very year to pursue them. In a very little while we conquered all the islands of the Philippines; but the little island of Jolo, a part of Mindanao, and other islands near by we have not been able to subjugate to this day." [32]

Battle at Mariveles with the Dutch.--In October, 1600, two Dutch vessels appeared in the Islands; it was the famous expedition of the Dutch admiral, Van Noort. They had come through the Straits of Magellan, on a voyage around the world. The Dutch were in great need of provisions. As they were in their great enemy's colony, they captured and sunk several boats, Spanish and Chinese, bound for Manila with rice, poultry, palm-wine, and other stores of food. At Mariveles, a j.a.panese vessel from j.a.pan was overhauled. Meanwhile in Manila great excitement and activity prevailed. The Spaniards fitted up two galleons and the "Oidor" Morga himself took command with a large crew of fighting men.

On November 14, they attacked the Dutch, whose crews were greatly reduced to only eighty men on both ships. The vessel commanded by Morga ran down the flagship of Van Noort, and for hours the ships lay side by side while a hand-to-hand fight raged on the deck and in the hold. The ships taking fire, Morga disengaged his ship, which was so badly shattered that it sank, with great loss of life; but Morga and some others reached the little island of Fortuna. Van Noort was able to extinguish the fire on his vessel, and escape from the Islands. He eventually reached Holland. His smaller vessel was captured with its crew of twenty-five men, who were all hung at Cavite. [33]

Other Troubles of the Spanish.--In the year 1600, two ships sailed for Acapulco, but one went down off the Catanduanes and the other was shipwrecked on the Ladrones. "On top of all other misfortunes, Manila suffered, in the last months of this government, a terrible earthquake, which destroyed many houses and the church of the Jesuits." [34]

The Moros, the Dutch, anxieties and losses by sea, the visitations of G.o.d,--how much of the history of the seventeenth century in the Philippines is filled with these four things!

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PHILIPPINES THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Condition of the Archipelago at the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century.--The Spanish Rule Completely Established.--At the close of the sixteenth century the Spaniards had been in possession of the Philippines for a generation. In these thirty-five years the most striking of all the results of the long period of Spanish occupation were accomplished. The work of these first soldiers and missionaries established the limits and character of Spanish rule as it was to remain for 250 years. Into this first third of a century the Spaniard crowded all his heroic feats of arms, exploration, and conversion. Thereafter, down to 1850, new fields were explored, and only a few new tribes Christianized.

The survey of the archipelago given by Morga soon after 1600 reads like a narrative of approximately modern conditions. It reveals to us how great had been the activities of the early Spaniard and how small the achievements of his countrymen after the seventeenth century began. All of the large islands, except Paragua and the Moro country, were, in that day, under encomiendas, their inhabitants paying tributes and for the most part professing the Catholic faith.

The smaller groups and islets were almost as thoroughly exploited. Even of the little Catanduanes, lying off the Pacific coast of Luzon, Morga could say, "They are well populated with natives,--a good race, all encomended to Spaniards, with doctrine and churches, and an alcalde-mayor, who does justice among them."

He says of the Babuyanes at the extreme north of the archipelago, "They are not encomended, nor is tribute collected among them, nor are there Spaniards among them, because they are of little reason and politeness, and there have neither been Christians made among them, nor have they justices." They continued in this condition until a few years before the end of Spanish rule. In 1591, however, the Babuyanes had been given in encomienda to Esteban de la Serna and Francisco Castillo. They are put as having two thousand inhabitants and five hundred "tributantes," but all unsubdued ("todos alcados").

On some islands the hold of the Spaniards was more extensive in Morga's day than at a later time. Then the island of Mindoro was regarded as important, and in the early years and decades of Spanish power appears to have been populous along the coasts. Later it was desolated by the Moro pirates and long remained wild and almost uninhabited except by a shifting population from the mainland of Luzon.

The Encomiendas.--The first vessels that followed the expedition of Legaspi had brought orders from the king that the Islands should be settled, and divided in encomiendas to those who had conquered and won them. [35] On this instruction, Legaspi had given the Filipinos in encomienda to his captains and soldiers as fast as the conquest proceeded.

We are fortunate to have a review of these encomiendas, made in 1591, about twenty-five years after the system was introduced into the Islands. [36] There were then 267 encomiendas in the Philippines, of which thirty-one were of the king, and the remainder of private persons.

Population under the Encomiendas.--From the enumeration of these encomiendas, we learn that the most populous parts of the archipelago were La Laguna, with 24,000 tributantes and 97,000 inhabitants, and the Camarines, which included all the Bicol territory, and the Catanduanes, where there were 21,670 tributantes and a population of over 86,000, In the vicinity of Manila and Tondo, which included Cavite and Marigondon, the south sh.o.r.e of the bay, and Pasig and Taguig, there were collected 9,410 tributes, and the population was estimated at about 30,000. In Ilocos were reported 17,130 tributes and 78,520 souls.

The entire valley of the Cagayan had been divided among the soldiers of the command which had effected the conquest. In the list of encomiendas a few can be recognized, such as Yguig and Tuguegarao, but most of the names are not to be found on maps of to-day. Most of the inhabitants were reported to be "rebellious" (alcados), and some were apparently the same wild tribes which still occupy all of this water-shed, except the very banks of the river; but none the less had the Spaniards divided them off into "repartimientos." One soldier had even taken as an encomienda the inhabitants of the upper waters of the river, a region which is called in the Relacion "Pugao," with little doubt the habitat of the same Igorrote tribe as the Ipugao, who still dwell in these mountains. The upper valley of the Magat, or Nueva Vizcaya, does not appear to have been occupied and probably was not until the missions of the eighteenth century.

The population among the Bisayan islands was quite surprisingly small, considering its present proportions. Masbate, for example, had but 1,600 souls; Burias, a like number; the whole central group, leaving out Panay, only 15,833 tributes, or about 35,000 souls. There was a single encomienda in Butuan, Mindanao, and another on the Caraga coast. There were a thousand tributes collected in the encomienda of Cuyo, and fifteen hundred in Calamianes, which, says the Relacion, included "los negrillos," probably the mixed Negrito population of northern Palawan.

The entire population under encomiendas is set down as 166,903 tributes, or 667,612 souls. This is, so far as known, the earliest enumeration of the population of the Philippines. Barring the Igorrotes of northern Luzon and the Moros and other tribes of Mindanao, it is a fair estimate of the number of the Filipino people three hundred years ago.

It will be noticed that the numbers a.s.signed to single encomenderos in the Philippines were large. In America the number was limited. As early as 1512, King Ferdinand had forbidden any single person, of whatever rank or grade, to hold more than three hundred Indians on one island. [37] But in the Philippines, a thousand or twelve hundred "tributantes" were frequently held by a single Spaniard.

Condition of the Filipinos under the Encomiendas.--Frequent Revolts.--That the Filipinos on many of these islands bitterly resented their condition is evidenced by the frequent uprisings and rebellions. The encomenderos were often extortionate and cruel, and absolutely heedless of the restrictions and obligations imposed upon them by the Laws of the Indies. Occasionally a new governor, under the first impulse of instructions from Mexico or Spain, did something to correct abuses. Revolts were almost continuous during the year 1583, and the condition of the natives very bad, many encomenderos regarding them and treating them almost as slaves, and keeping them at labor to the destruction of their own crops and the misery of their families. Gov. Santiago de Vera reached the Islands the following year and made a characteristic attempt to improve the system, which is thus related by Zuniga:--

"As soon as he had taken possession of the government, he studied to put into effect the orders which he brought from the king, to punish certain encomenderos, who had abused the favor they had received in being given encomiendas, whereby he deposed Bartolome de Ledesma, encomendero of Abuyo (Leyte), and others of those most culpable, and punished the others in proportion to the offenses which they had committed, and which had been proven.